I found this quote before Nathan turned one. I loved it. It couldn't be a more perfect summation of what 'boy' is.

"A boy is Truth with dirt on its face, Beauty with a cut on its finger, Wisdom with bubble gum in its hair and the Hope of the future with a frog in its pocket." - Alan Marshall Beck

I actually added it to the first picture of Nathan that I was proud of and used it for Nathan's blog header for a while. It was actually that shot that inspired me to enter the world of Photoshop. Well, that shot, Pioneer Woman's blog, and my friend Becky, the photoshop master, truthfully. Here it is.

Nathan has been asking why I don't have a 'big picture' (aka canvas) of him, like I just got of Cora and one for a friend's little girl. So I decided I'd incorporate this quote that says "Nathan" to me in his new canvas for his room makeover. But in true Carey fashion, I can't make up my mind which image to use.

This was at the beach, Topsail Island NC, in early June.

This was during a hike to a waterfall in early July.

Hard to believe the 18 month old dude in the first picture has morphed into this amazing four and a half year old!

"Only miracle is plain; it is the ordinary that groans with the unutterable weight of glory."-Robert Farrar Capon

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,Prone to leave the God I love;Here's my heart,O take and seal it;Seal it for Thy courts above.

I'm a sensitive introvert who finds such beauty in the ordinary, everyday moments in life. I seek light. I'm mesmerized by it. I photograph and share my images in the hopes that you can also be blessed by the beauty I find around me.

I could not be more proud of this kiddo. He spent his day working on google classroom assignments for the snow day, then piano practice, then I told him I was going to shovel the driveway. He joined me. We worked together for a long, long time. He never complained. He didn’t complain that I had the better shovel. He didn’t complain that it was tiresome and boring work. He didn’t complain that his sister wasn’t helping. He didn’t complain when he realized that having a long driveway means it takes a looooooong time to make progress against 14” of snow. He didn’t complain that he hadn’t had a chance to play in the snow yet today. He was in it for the long haul. When I told him to go to the house and tell his sister she needed to unload the dishwasher, he came back with two water bottles for us to drink. (He did complain thAt I made him wear gloves so he wouldn’t get blisters bc ain’t nobody got time for that for basketball games or piano recitals on Sunday!). I have no idea how long we had been at it when Shawn got home from work. He jumped in and we three worked for a while until I realized I wanted a picture to remember this and bailed. I’m so proud of the work ethic of this kid and his character in the midst of it.

Antics.

Light up the night 5k for the second year. The Boy got 2nd in his 10-14 age group. His was around 23:50. The Lady decided yesterday morning that she’d run it, too. So we did. I forgot to take a picture of us before the race though. Or at the race. So in the car while we waited for daddy in a parking lot it is. But I wanted to remember this race we ran together. I told her I wasn’t going to push her. We haven’t been running this fall once the cross country team failed to materialize, so she hasn’t trained at all. I wasn’t going to fight her the whole run. She ran the whole thing pushing ME! She didn’t complain once. She rocked it. even though she didn’t get an age group award I couldn’t be more proud that she chose to go out and do this Instead of sitting and watching. I think her time was around 32:40 which is about 1 min slower than her time last year. Not bad for not training.

We got home from the MS basketball game and I jumped into finishing laundry. I came out to find this scene of homework with The Lady. Then I walked back to check on The Boy and found the same scene. Exactly. We miss the sun.

Last weekend we found ourselves a giant tree.

We weren’t allowed to have cameras or phones out during our horseback riding. (Do you know how much that killed me???) but the super awesome guide dude who started out just in front of The Lady grabbed several shots of the four of us along the way. I was soooooooo thankful!

The whole morning was ‘off.’ I slept too late. I took the dogs out too late. I had to wait forever for the puppy to poop. I woke the kids late. I got The Lady in the shower late. I started cooking breakfast late. They started eating breakfast late. Then I spent their entire breakfast time looking for the cup of coffee that I’d poured before putting The Lady in the shower. I couldn’t find it anywhere.

The whole time I didn't know what to say. The whole time I didn't know whether this was happening for HER or for ME. Was I supposed to DO something with this? Or was I just supposed to be there, to be a calm presence, to listen? Was God trying to speak to my own heart through her words and her wounds? I felt almost panicked, not having time to think through all the options and what the one very right thing to do could be. I wish I could say I chose out of wisdom, but that's not true. I chose out of exasperation. I just tried to listen. To affirm her. To tell her I was sorry. So very sorry that it happened to her and she'd had to live through that.

I saw it the moment she walked in the door that Friday evening. Something was wrong. Not her normal 'I didn't get my way' kind of wrong but a deep, consequential wrong. In a millisecond I had time to think a thousand year's worth of thoughts.